Shouldn't be a problem with anything. This looks more of a problem in your network or firewall. Shoddybattle can connect as it can download the JAR files. No, opening ports won't help with ANYTHING. By chance, when you launched it did it have anything to do with "allow access to the internet: java.exe". If you clicked no, then thats your problem. Try it on another machine, or allow java to connect. You may also want to try advance connecting.
EDIT: 300th post.